Hague clock of ebony and padauk, made around 1690 by Johannes Tegelbergh. Tegelbergh was born in Dordrecht in 1648. That made him a fellow townsman of Johan de Witt, who as Grand Pensionary became the mightiest man in the Dutch Republic during its Golden Age. Tegelbergh came from an artistically inclined family. His relative Dirk Tegelbergh was a well known musician and was reputedly Holland’s best player on the harpsichord.
In 1670 Tegelbergh moved to The Hague where he took up citizenship. He ended his career brilliantly, as warden and master of the very prestigious clockmakers guild of which in 1688 he was one of the founders. This clock uses the pendulum as invented by Christiaan Huygens. The ebony and the padauk, both very costly woods, were carried from Ceylon and Coromandel by the Dutch East India Company.